Proper timing is essential to establishing and maintaining good communication on any data network. To ensure that each message bit on the CAN bus is sampled at a proper point within the nominal bit time, four phases or values (parameters) are defined: SYNC_SEG, PHASE_SEG1, and PHASE_SEG2. The SYNC_SEG portion of the bit time is used to synchronize the various nodes on the bus. A signal transition edge is expected to lie within this phase of the bit-time segment. The PROP_SEG part of the bit time is used to compensate for the physical delay times within the network.